An outline agreement on a new national pay deal that will provide wage increases up to 6.5 percent over 21 months has been welcomed by commentators but has received a mixed reception from small businesses and some trade unions.

After a marathon uninterrupted 22 hours of talks with Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen participating at one stage the government and leaders of the social partners - employers and unions - hammered out an agreement that will be voted on by the rank and file on both sides in the next six weeks.

Cowen said the government supported the deal, given the wider economic and social benefits of a national agreement.

The employers' group IBEC said it would put the draft deal to its members and that it could take several weeks to reach a final decision.

If the deal is agreed, workers will be awarded pay rises in two phases of 3.5 percent and 2.5 percent, with a final 1/2 percent at the end of 21 months for the lower paid earning less than $626.26 per week.

Some of the country's largest employers claimed they will be unable to fund the 6.5 percent pay increases. Although the figures are up to 1 percent below predicted inflation, hoteliers and construction firms said they believe they will struggle to make the increases.

The Construction Industry Federation director general Tom Parlon, said there were "positives and negatives." He expressed concern in relation to the pay element in an industry under pressure.

Irish Hotels Federation president Matthew Ryan said, "Labor-intensive sectors, such as hotels where wage costs are over 40% of turnover, cannot afford any further wage increases until there is a return to growth in the turnover of the business to recoup these additional costs.

"The hotel industry in Ireland employs over 65,000 people. If we are to sustain those jobs, there must be a pay pause until the end of 2009."

The deal also includes a three-month pay pause in the private sector and an 11-month pay pause in the public sector.

Cowen said the government will also introduce a new framework to prevent the use of temporary agency workers to break strikes and lockouts - a major concession to unions.

Cowen added, "A national pay agreement will give a sense of confidence and stability in the challenging period ahead. The negotiations were very lengthy and complex and the social partners made commendable efforts to enable the terms of a draft agreement to be identified."

Tanaiste( Deputy PM) Mary Coughlan said the deal will "provide the necessary strong protection for employment standards, while also providing a much-needed boost to enterprise."

IBEC director general Turlough O'Sullivan said, "It's a matter now for the membership of all the organizations to consider the draft. That's what it is, a draft. But it was the best the parties could do under the circumstances.

"There are pluses. It sends out a positive signal to the investment community at home and abroad and it keeps the process intact.

"Hopefully this draft agreement will give us some breathing space to confront the very serious difficulties that the economy is facing."

On the other side of the talks, Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) general secretary David Begg said the draft agreement represented the best efforts of negotiators over a very long period of time.

"If we were to stay there until next Christmas we couldn't achieve more by negotiation so it's open to democracy now to decide," he said. He was confident his members would accept the deal.

The draft deal was reached last week after Cowen advised negotiators that the world economic situation had changed even since the start of their resumed contacts nine days earlier following collapsed talks six weeks ago.

Cowen urged them to be realistic in their approach on pay.

Main Opposition party Fine Gael criticized the deal and claimed it will not deliver the reform needed to improve the economy. The party's finance spokesman Richard Bruton said it was a case of one small cheer for the agreement - but it was not the answer to the current problems.

The Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME) claimed the deal could result in "wholesale redundancies." ISME chief executive Mark Fielding said the consequences of the deal on smaller businesses had been "ignored, overlooked and disregarded."